On Wednesday, a day after North Korea launched a ballistic missile, South Korea and the United States fired four surface-to-surface missiles toward the Sea of Japan. A North Korean warship has flown over Japan since 2017.
According to the South Korean General Staff, on Wednesday the South Korean and US forces each launched two ATACMS short-range ballistic missiles to “accurately hit a virtual target”. The exercises “demonstrate that we are capable and prepared to neutralize the appearance of provocation while maintaining a constant vigilance posture,” he added in a press release. The South Korean missile failed shortly after launch, crashing without any casualties, the military confirmed.
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On Tuesday, South Korean and US warplanes had already conducted precision strike exercises, with two South Korean F-15K fighter jets dropping bombs on a virtual target in the Yellow Sea, according to Seoul.
“Respond to Provocations”
John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, told CNN that it was “to respond to provocations from the North, to make sure that we can demonstrate our own capabilities” and that “we will make sure that we have military capabilities.” Ready”. “It doesn’t have to come to that. We have made it clear to Kim Jong-un that we are ready to sit at the table without preconditions,” he added.
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Adopting a new doctrine of nuclear “irreversibility,” North Korea this year stepped up its missile launch and launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time since 2017. Tuesday’s shooting was the fifth in ten days. .
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the “escalation”. He called on Pyongyang to “re-start negotiations” in order to achieve “complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”.
US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday condemned North Korea’s latest firing in “the strongest terms”. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol for his part condemned a “provocation” that “clearly violates international principles and UN standards” and ordered a “firm response”.
Nuclear test in readiness
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have recently stepped up joint military exercises, with the first trilateral anti-submarine drills in five years on September 30, after large-scale maneuvers by the US and South Korean navies off the coast of the peninsula. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed to protect South Korea from its neighbors.
South Korean and US officials have been warning for months that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is preparing to conduct another nuclear test. It could be held after the next congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which begins on October 16, several senior officials at the US Asia-Pacific Command said this weekend.
Unlike other nuclear powers, North Korea does not see these types of weapons as a deterrent and should never use them.
Pyongyang has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006. The latest and most powerful test came in 2017, with an estimated yield of 250 kilotons.
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